Jackson marks Juneteenth at Newport News event

E. W.

NEWPORT NEWS – E.W. Jackson, the Republican candidate for lieutenant governor, told a group of people at a Juneteenth celebration in Newport News Wednesday that Americans "should remember" the country's history of slavery, but "not wallow in it."

Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, when slaves in Texas first learned of the end of slavery from Union Gen, Gordon Granger, and is now celebrated as a day marking the end of slavery in the United States.

Jackson, the great-grandson of slaves from Orange County, told the crowd that slavery was not a uniquely American concept. He said it was the principles set forth in the Declaration of Independence that eventually lead to the end of slavery.

"We are founded on the principle of truth that our rights, our freedoms do not come from a government, a king, a president, a potentate," he said. "They came from almighty God; they come from our creator. And even while slavery still existed in this nation those words resonated in the consciences of the American people."

The crowd at King-Lincoln Park – which is in sight of the place where the first African slave entered the colonies – had dwindled to roughly 30 people by the time Jackson arrived at the end of the event.

The Chesapeake-based minister said that it was not slavery that eroded the black family but government policies in the 1960s.

"In 1960 most black children were raised in two parent monogamous families," Jackson said. "By now, by this time, we only have 20 percent of black children being raised in two parent monogamous families with a married man and woman raising those children. It wasn't slavery that did that. It was government that did that trying to solve problems that only God can solve, and that only we as human beings can solve."

This was the second year of the Juneteenth event organized by Dean Longo, who was the Republican challenger to U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Newport News last year.

Longo said that Jackson is "a man anointed by God to take the message out to the people."

Jackson has been criticized by opponents for his fiery rhetoric that includes statements comparing Democrats to "salve masters" and "liberalism and their ideas have done more to kill black folks, whom they claim so much to love, than the Ku Klux Klan, lynching and slavery and Jim Crow ever did, now that's a fact."

State Sen. Ralph Northam of Norfolk, Jackson's Democratic opponent, said while Juneteenth recognizes the end of slavery, there is still work to do.

"Today, all Virginians celebrate and honor those who fought, struggled, and died to end slavery in this nation," Northam said. "Despite how far we have come, there is still progress to be made and I refuse to accept any form of discrimination."